Athletic Drug Testing

Hube is reporting that the iPod Michael Phelps wears to the blocks while mentally preparing for a race may be giving him an unfair advantage over other competitors. Therefore he should be stripped of his medals. Says Hube:

...what's next? Checking into Phelps' diet? I heard yesterday that Phelps eats about 12,000 calories a day. Do we examine all the ingredients of his diet to make sure there are no artificial substances in it? What about breathing deeply before a race? Wouldn't this type of breathing be "artificial," since it is far from "normal" breathing?

A good friend in college ran track and cross country. She said that one of the main ways the NCAA looks for drugs to ban is by examining what commonly shows up in runners drug tests. If they see a lot of something, they move to ban it. One of the common substances detected this way was C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ which is in athletes' blood in huge quantities. That's caffeine by the way. The NCAA also considers energy drinks to be unfair performance enhancers and regulated athletes intake of substances like the herb guarana in 2002. They finally regulated caffeine intake in 2006. I'm sure regulating diet won't be far off now.